jamesDK Productions presents a Vietnam play
GHOST OF WAR 2010
Last year we presented our "World Premiere" at the BECKETT THEATRE on THEATRE ROW on 42nd Street. This year we will be presenting a series of PREVIEWS this FALL in preparation for a another longer run. This is a "Writer Produced" presentation. (Contact information is placed at the end of this webpage.)
MICRO SYNOPSIS
"The Tempest" meets "Romeo and Juliet" in Vietnam.
"In a sense, Mankind's First War never ended. The Losers simply regrouped and came back. Maybe it took 10 years, maybe 100. But the sting of Defeat cultivated the resolve to reply.~~~ No War affected our present Society more than the Viet-American War, juxtapposing itself with the "Cultural Renaissance" of the Sixties.~~~ But few Wars have ever been less understood.~~~ As we approach a world of ever expanding complexity, it is imperative that we attempt to understand how we got here. This cycle of Ancient Conflict will end some day. We can choose the easy way, working together as a Global Society, or the hard way, continuing to pit one culture against another.
SETTING-OVERVIEW
"Retired" Army Sgt. James D. Caine narrates his own story from the piano. After encountering the ghost of his old partner and trainer Command Sgt. Thomas E. Daniels, he flashes back to his days as a Vietnam scout and sniper. The anguish of war and the anxiety of house arrest, however, have turned Caine into a "Split Personality."
CAST OF CHARACTERS
in order of appearance
JAMES DOYLE CAINE, 57............ Narrator, piano, FBI DC OP
ROBERT QUINCY MACKY, (1916-2002)....... Caine's 2nd Personality
THOMAS E. DANIELS, mid 20's....... Caine's first partner and ghost lurp
MING TET SONG, early 20's.........LI MING'S Aristocratic sister
LI MING SONG, mid 20's......... NVA OP and Daniels' fiance
ANDY MIRKOVIC, early 20's.....Caine's college roommate-confidante
JAMES DOYLE CAINE, 18........... College student turned L.R.R.P.
LT. GIDEON , 20's.....SVA Scout, Caine's 2nd partner in Nam
CYNTHIA MILAGROS SANTOS, 18....... Caine's ex-girlfriend
ELI WEINBERG, 57...........Cynthia's Poly Sci Professor
CMMDR TUNG TRINH, TAK, ZACK, HUNT, 20's.......Li Ming's battalion scouts
A WORD ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
GHOST OF WAR has evolved into an acoustic Play with piano Interludes, using no microphones or sound amplification. But the Play was originally conceived as a "Multi-Media" Musical with Rock Music, Ballads and Orchestral Music. A companion DVD will eventually be released for the Play with much of the music written with the original concept in mind. Here we offer a few music videos that we are developing for that DVD.
"STRAY STREET"
"DANCE OF THE DINOSAURS"
"GHOST OF WAR"
"SERGEANT CAINE'S ANTHEM"
MACRO SYNOPSIS
JAMES CAINE grew up with the Vietnam War. But that is not to say he really knew anything about it. To him as a young teenager it was only a TV war. Half a world away. But then as a college freshman he was shocked to find that the new "lottery" draft excluded all the usual college deferments. The war had become very unpopular and the attitudes of the traditional draftees had degenerated. America's military leaders decided that the drastic new measure of drafting collegians right out of school was the best way to transition to an all-volunteer military once the war was over.
The new lottery worked like this: All 365 days of the year were placed in a drum and withdrawn. One by one, each date was given a number. For example, the first date drawn, January 17th, was assigned number one, and so on. College students around the country estimated that if your birthdate was one of the first 100 or so drawn, you would probably be drafted. (Before this new "lottery" draft, if you were a college student in good standing, you were given a "deferment," or "pass" from the draft.)
So when Caine's birthdate came up number 11, he knew he could not avoid being drafted, even though he was an engineering student with an "A" class average.
Caine's freshman roommate in college was the son of a successful Pittsburgh businessman and world-wise beyond his years. He had some advice for Caine. Don't rebel. Don't procrastinate. Don't run away. Run in! Enlist! Turn this around. Make it something positive. Be somebody important and respected. Embrace this as an opportunity.
Caine qualified for special training: Long Range Reconnaisance Patrol.
His first partner and field trainer was the best "Ghost Warrior" in country. But this "lurp" wasn't the best because he hadn't learned the ways of the enemy. He was the best because he had: in every way. Command Sargeant THOMAS DANIELS had lost faith in the motives of his own government and now planned the most egregious transgression: Defection. He had fallen in love with a beautiful and aristocratic young North Vietnamese operative named LI MING SONG.
This all put Caine into a terrible situation. In order to protect his new partner, he must now lie to his recruiter and commander, COLONEL ROBERT Q. MACKY, and tell him that Daniels was dead. But if the Colonel ever found out the truth, Caine could be tried for Treason!
SGT. JAMES DOYLE CAINE
[Narrator-Piano]
SGT. JAMES CAINE'S JOURNAL
In America we always talk about the "Vietnam" War. But when I got to Vietnam, I found that the people always talked about the "American" War. This was because we were only the last in a long line of invaders to their country since ancient times. We found, a bit to our surprise, that these people had always known war and were almost comfortable with it, if that was possible. We didn't know it at the time, but we were about to learn from the best.
Vietnam could be called "The Crossroads of the Orient," providing the only land passage between the vast regions of China and all the territories of the south. The invaders were endless and came from all directions. From the north came the Chinese: the Hans, the Tangs and the Songs. From the south, the traders of the Malay Peninsula. From the west, the spectral warriors from Ankor, the Thai-speaking tribes from Siam, and even absentee landlords-by-proxy from as far away as the Hindu Kingdoms of India.
Industrial technology brought European dominance and Vietnam fell under the French colonial sphere. World War II brought Japanese occupation, but also, the cooperation of a "Vichy" style French-Vietnamese government. It was during this time that a nationalist, civilian militia rose up called the VIET MINH, with its political and philosophical leader HO CHI MINH. !--(Although aligned with Allied forces against the Japanese, the Viet Minh successfully fought against the re-establisment of French colonial rule after WWII. The subsequent peace talks in Geneva in 1954 scheduled national elections for the following year. These national elections, however, were never held, and the country was "temporarily" divided into North and South Vietnam.)--!
This forced separation did not prove stable and these civilian fighters re-emerged years later during the "American" war with a new name. The name that I would come to know them by: the VIET CONG.
COMMUNISM
Things don't happen in a vacuum, do they? I'll tell you the same thing about communism that Colonel Macky told me. After WWII, the Allies gave France back to the French, we gave Italy back to the Italians, and Spain back to the Spanish. But the Russian Communists refused to leave eastern Europe. The people of the world had legitimate cause to be alarmed. Russian Communism was a militaristic corruption of socialist principles. When word got out that religion itself was to be eliminated, there was no way to reconcile. An ideological war was on. After the Communist Koreans tried to march on Seoul, the "Domino Theory" was created. If Vietnam fell, all of the mainland Orient would follow. So John Forster Dulles, the archetect of SEATO, had every reason to believe he was doing the right thing, even if it denied democracy to the people of Vietnam. After all, Ho Chi Minh was just a puppet of the Chinese "Reds."
"The citizens are not intelligent enough to be told the truth."...Machiavelli
"No one is stupid. But the people are not well-informed enough to make important decisions about Policy."...Anonymous political candidate
"But you are?" ...Blackballed political correspondant
THE SUMMER OF '64
In the summer of 1964 I was 11 years old. And I can remember it was a different time in America. A more innocent time. No one seemed to use bad language. Politicians seemed to always tell the truth. The police were all polite and nice. Our institutions were held in high regard. And the only people who had tattoos were criminals or veterans from the war. It was a time before Horror movies and Gangster movies (at least in wide release). Even loud rock bands like THE BEATLES wore suits and had relatively short hair.
It was a time before drugs, before promiscuous sex, and a time before viscious street crime, at least for a young kid growing up in middle-class Rochester, New York. About the only global problems encountered by us kids was when we were told to finish our food by our mothers because there were starving children in China. But a series of events occuring half a world away would conspire to shatter this delicate American innocence forever...
THE GULF ON TONKIN INCIDENT
On the evening of August 4th, 1964, it was hot, dark and misty in the Gulf of Tonkin as two American battleships, the USS MADDOX and the USS TURNER-JOY, began their patrol of these waters off the coast of North Vietnam. !--(Although Wahington and Hanoi were not officially at war, the Americans had set up SEATO, the South East Asian Treaty Organization, in direct opposition to the Geneva Peace Accords of 1954, effectively blocking national elections.)--!
As the evening wore on, a violent thunder cell swept up the slot from the Indonesian Spice Islands. As the storm eventually engulfed the ships, the electrical activity in the swirling cell wreaked havoc with the sensitive RADAR and SONAR systems of the day.
First the RADAR operator reported possible contact, but he couldn't be sure. Perhaps two or three small gunboats. The SONAR report was inconclusive. There was simply too much electrical interference for accurate readings. As a precaution, several rounds were discharged topside in the direction of the vector. As the night continued, though, no actual contact was ever established. Earlier in the evening, however, a radio report had been sent out informing command of the incident.
Six days later, in Washington, President Lyndon B. Johnson used this unsubstantiated incident to ask Congress to pass the so-called GULF OF TONKIN RESOLUTION, officially beginning the "American" war in Vietnam.
THE CURTAIN RISES...
EXTERIOR SCENE A jungle scene at night. Two bushes seem to slowly move.
They are moving. But they are not bushes. Two soldiers crawl along the ground. They wear "Ghillie" suits, covering their head and back with moss, leaves and branches.
One soldier moves slightly ahead and views with binoculars. The second holds back and prepares a rifle against a tree, but seems hesitant.
BINOC GIDEON: "Caine. That's our tag."
RIFLE CAINE: "Gideon. We're too tight. We're on top of'em."
GIDEON: "Caine. That's our tag. The fire. Three clicks to the left. The old man with the white beard. That's our tag. Now take it. Stop your cryin' and do your duty!"
RELUCTANTLY, Caine locks down the weapon and FIRES. The BLAST shatters the stillness. After just a moment, SCREAMING, YELLING, and then weapons FIRE fills the air.
GIDEON foolishly keeps viewing as the ammo RIPS by, all around. Caine is emphatic as he commands.
CAINE: "Gideon. Get down. Get the hell down."
GIDEON turns and runs back to the now prone Caine, but is hit and falls as he reaches him. Caine grabs the limp Gideon by the collar and drags him into their "Blind," a tiny shelter in the bushes they have fashioned.
NVA REGULAR soldiers run by, pointing and SHOUTING, but only stopping to circumview, and then continue.
AS THE SOUND of the soldiers fades, Caine stealthily leaves the "Blind,"... alone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
INTERIOR SCENE Sgt. Caine is led from a jail cell into a meeting arena. He stands before a uniformed officer.
OFFICER: "Command Sargeant James D. Caine! You have been sentenced to "Death by Firing Squad" by the United States Martial Court of South Vietnam on this day, November 17th, 1972. Do you have any last words before execution of sentence?"
CAINE: "Last words? Of course I got some last words. I shouldn't even be here. Colonel Macky! I followed every order you gave me. Tell this guy. Macky, tell'em."
OFFICER: "That's enough."
FROM THE SHADOWS Colonel Macky responds.
MACKY: "Caine. Stand tall. Take your punishment like a man."
CAINE: "My punishment?"
OFFICER:"Sargeant-at-Arms!"
SGT-AT-ARMS: "Ready arms. Aim. Fire... Fire... Fire...."
TITLE: ONE YEAR EARLIER...